Set-top boxes (STB) with an internal disk (e.g., hard disk drive (HDD)) may fail at any time without providing a warning to a subscriber, thus subscribers are at risk of losing recorded content and digital video recorder (DVR) functionality until the STB or associated disk can be replaced. Therefore, it would be advantageous if a subscriber either directly or through a multiple systems operator (MSO) is warned of an impending failure of the disk associated with a STB. Further, when a STB enters a repair center, it would be beneficial for technicians to have the ability to conduct a quick evaluation of disk health to check whether the disk is healthy enough to be deployed to perform a specific use case.
Currently, self-monitoring technology is used in STBs as one major tool to predict disk failures. However, not all self-monitoring attributes are clear indicators of an imminent disk failure, and the presence or absence of pre-failure attributes at a STB has not provided an accurate mechanism for predicting disk failures. Moreover, STBs are used differently by different users, and different types of STBs are configured with different capabilities. Therefore, there is a need for a disk testing procedure that may be customized per device and per user.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.